Gains

How to spell gains

5 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce gains

What does gains mean?

1. nounIncreases in amount, value, or advantage; profits or things acquired.
2. verbObtains, acquires, or increases something; said of a single subject.

Gains in a sentence

• noun

  The fund posted strong gains over the past quarter.

• verb

  A worker gains experience with every new project.

• noun

  Steady gains in fitness came from her daily training.

• verb

  The clock gains a few minutes every week.

Where does gains come from?

Language of origin: French

The root word 'gain' arrived in English from Old French 'gain' and the related verb 'gaaignier', meaning 'to earn, to till the land, to win'. Those French words trace back to a Frankish (and broadly Germanic) source, reconstructed as 'waidanjan', which literally meant 'to forage, hunt for food, or graze cattle', the earliest livelihoods through which people made their living. As the sense moved from foraging and farming toward earning and profit, English adopted it in the 1400s, first as a noun for what was won or earned and soon as a verb meaning to obtain or increase. The spelling is reassuringly phonetic, with the 'ai' simply spelling the long 'a' sound, and the plural or verb '-s' added cleanly. A distant cousin from the same Germanic stock is the word 'wade', tied to the old idea of moving through ground to forage.

How the word is built

• gain (from Old French gaaigne: profit, earnings)
• -s (plural noun / third-person verb ending)